One of the classic casino games is video draw poker. A player makes a wager to be eligible to play the game. After an initial deal of five cards is displayed to the player on a video display screen, the player is allowed to discard and replace unwanted cards with replacement cards. The player attempts to achieve the highest possible poker hand from the starting five cards. Video poker games use poker hand rankings to determine winning combinations and a payout schedule is used to determine the amount awarded to the player for achieving a winning combination.
Casino games such as video draw poker offer the player a pay table that is based on the mathematical probabilities of the game being played. It is possible to determine mathematically how a player should play each hand of cards that is presented to the player so that the player can have the best possible chance of maximizing the game return of the gaming machine being played. One well known way of determining player strategy is to calculate the highest Expected Value (EV) for each starting hand dealt to the player. The player then plays his hand in accordance with the strategy that has the highest expected value for the pay table being offered to the player.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,343,989 (Wood et al.) a detailed discussion of determining the Expected Value of each initially dealt hand is described. The disclosure of this patent is incorporated herein by this reference.
John Fox has also proposed a video poker game which uses the EV of the initially dealt hand to provide the player with other starting hands having a similar EV. In the John Fox proposed game, a player makes a multiple coins or credits wager and the player is dealt an initial five card hand. This hand is to be played in a particular video poker game format, such as Double Double Bonus Poker. The computer controls of the gaming machine then select other initial starting hands with a similar EV to be played against other video poker game formats. For example, the other video poker game formats may be simple Draw Poker, Joker Wild Poker, Deuces Wild Poker or any of the myriad of video poker game formats that have been developed over the years.
The player then has the option of reallocating his wager among the various starting hands that have been dealt. Each hand is then played separately by holding wanted cards, discarding unwanted hands and receiving replacement cards for the discarded cards. The poker hand ranking of each final hand is then determined and the player receives an award for any winning poker hand rankings based on the pay table associated with the poker game format associated with each hand.
A drawback of the John Fox game proposal is that the player must understand about EV's in order to determine which of the various initial hands is more favorable to the player relative to the different poker game formats being used. Once the player has made this determination, the player must then reallocate his wager among those hands that the player considers most favorable. EV is very dependent on the pay table and the poker game format and the John Fox game proposal is very complicated to play since there are many variables including the poker game format, the pay table, the initial cards dealt to the player and the reallocation of the wager among the various hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873 (Moody) (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference) describes an electronic video gaming machine and method in which the player may play multiple hands at the same time. The player makes a wager for each separate hand to be played by the player. One hand of five cards is dealt all face up. The player selects none, one or more of the face up cards from the first hand as cards to be held. The cards that are held are reused from the first hand into all of the other hands. Replacement cards for the non-selected cards are dealt into the first hand and additional cards are then dealt to the first hand, if needed, so that the first hand has five cards. Additional cards are also dealt to all of the other hands so that each hand is a five card hand. The poker hand ranking of each five card hand is determined row by row. The player is then paid for any winning poker hands based on a pay table and the amount of the player's wager.
Another method of playing multiple hand video poker is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,568 (Hachquet), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein. In this method, two or more identical starting hands are displayed to the player. The player has the option of holding and discarding from each of these hands independently. The player is not required to hold the same cards in each hand. After the player has selected which cards to hold in each hand, replacement cards are displayed for the unheld cards and the poker hand ranking of each final hand is determined. Winning poker hand combinations are paid in accordance with a pay table and the amount wagered by the player.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,074 (Moody et al.), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein, also discloses a method of playing multiple hand video poker in which each hand is played independently of the other hands.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a video poker game in which the player is offered multiple hands of similar EV in a much easier way to play.
It is a feature of the present invention that the player makes a wager which is allocated among the plurality of hands that the player wishes to play. The game is played using a single poker game format and an initial five card hand is dealt to the player. The computer controls of the gaming machine determine the EV of this starting hand relative to the poker game format and the player is offered one or more additional five card hands having a similar EV to that of the initially dealt hand. The player selects one of the multiple hands and all of the player's hands become the same starting hand selected by the player. The player then plays out each hand by holding and drawing and receiving replacement cards. Each winning hand results in an award to the player based on the poker hand ranking, the amount wagered by the player on that hand and the pay table being used.
It is a further feature of the present invention that, in another version of the method of play, that after an initial five card hand is dealt to the player, the computer controls of the gaming machine simply display one or more additional five card hands having a similar or identical EV to that of the initially dealt hand by merely changing the suits of the cards of the initial hand or by making slight changes to the ranks of the cards of the initial hand. The player selects one of the multiple hands and all of the player's hands become the same starting hand selected by the player. The player then plays out each hand by holding and drawing and receiving replacement cards. Each winning hand results in an award to the player based on the poker hand ranking, the amount wagered by the player on that hand and the pay table being used.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the player has the opportunity to choose from more than one starting hand to play multiple times. This is an easier way to play than presented by the John Fox proposal and allows less knowledgeable video poker players the ability to participate in a multiple hand video poker game.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description.